Chatham Community Gives Back To Refill Food Pantry For MLK Day Of Service

CHATHAM, NJ — The shelves of Chatham United Methodist Church’s Community Food Pantry were restocked and reorganized on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Volunteers from the Chatham United Methodist Church and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of Chatham Borough, jointly organized a contact-free, drive-up food collection event to celebrate King’s life on Monday.

Chatham High School students from the Key Club further helped by reorganizing the food pantry and removing expired foods. Chatham children made luminaries that lined the sidewalks leading to a special noontime service at the church, with quotes from and images of King.

“Our hearts ands shelves are so full,” the food pantry's organizers wrote about the outreach on social media, describing the teens especially as “hard working and so compassionate.”

The service after the drive-thru food collection was co-led by high school students and the United Methodist Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township and Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church.

Chatham Borough Council Member Carolyn Dempsey, also a musician, led the attendees in songs honoring King’s legacy. Gloria Dei Lutheran Church’s pastor Rev. Dr. Christa Compton, along with Chatham Borough Mayor Thaddeus Kobylarz, each made special remarks about King during the service.

Kobylarz, who called King “one of America’s most revered public moral figures,” further described him as an “activist preacher whose inspirational leadership and soaring oratory have transformed him over time, justifiably I might add, into a venerated prophet of social progress and moral redemption.”

Many of his ideas, Kobylarz said, “upset convention and pose radical challenges to received opinion and points of view.”

Click here for Kobylarz’s full remarks about King.

The Chatham United Methodist Church hosts a once weekly, drive-thru food distribution. There is also an on-site food pantry at the church that’s accessible 24-7 in weather-sturdy sheds. Find out more here about how to receive food from or donate it to the pantry.

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